If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

We have the worst owners in the league, why invest in something that you are not willing to improve. Looks to me that they want a quick buck by doing sweet FA. Sold saying they would take us to the next level! What a load of crap that was!!! Just p!ss off and give us owners who walk the talk.

I think if Gao took over a successful tanning salon, he'd immediately sell all the sun beds and sit there with his feet up thinking of all the money he has just made and how much he's going to save on electricity.

Gao is a useless cu nt but kat is worse. Sold us down the river and has been asset stripping for years. Enough is enough. We should be giving them sh it when they turn up to games.

Not sure asset stripping is correct. Certainly we were overly self sufficient. We sold good players (mostly) at good prices. That money was the only money that went in to the team. That is apart from that going for training ground improvements + interest. TBH I have no problem with the club being run as a business. People were mad talking about Marcus' legacy - his legacy was to his daughter, and it netted her a £200m profit (while retaining 20% of the club). The insincere BS from her about doing the best for the club was something she really shouldn't have wasted her time doing, but hey, £200m is £200m. A good investment.

The new fella, I have no idea about. Before people say that there is no reason to have my hand held by him, I do think he could come out and tell us what the plans are, what the situation is. He didn't even say well done to the team for pulling it around at the back end of last season and surviving. Nothing about the new season. Nothing about the new manager. Nothing.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. It does look like we are a bit ducked.

Not sure asset stripping is correct. Certainly we were overly self sufficient. We sold good players (mostly) at good prices. That money was the only money that went in to the team. That is apart from that going for training ground improvements + interest. TBH I have no problem with the club being run as a business. People were mad talking about Marcus' legacy - his legacy was to his daughter, and it netted her a £200m profit (while retaining 20% of the club). The insincere BS from her about doing the best for the club was something she really shouldn't have wasted her time doing, but hey, £200m is £200m. A good investment.

The new fella, I have no idea about. Before people say that there is no reason to have my hand held by him, I do think he could come out and tell us what the plans are, what the situation is. He didn't even say well done to the team for pulling it around at the back end of last season and surviving. Nothing about the new season. Nothing about the new manager. Nothing.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. It does look like we are a bit ducked.

That's what irks me the most. We have no idea what his plans are. Does the useless pr ick even have any? Are we going to scrape 17th every year and bag the TV money or are we going to push for Europe again? He's not an owner who cares about the football. He bought us to make profit and that makes both our owners only caring about profit. I 100% see kat as asset stripping though, mate. Made as much from our stars as possible and then sold the corpse to the first bidder. We are a shambles and I'm sick of it now. If we get relegated I hope we go up for sale.

That's what irks me the most. We have no idea what his plans are. Does the useless pr ick even have any? Are we going to scrape 17th every year and bag the TV money or are we going to push for Europe again? He's not an owner who cares about the football. He bought us to make profit and that makes both our owners only caring about profit. I 100% see kat as asset stripping though, mate. Made as much from our stars as possible and then sold the corpse to the first bidder. We are a shambles and I'm sick of it now. If we get relegated I hope we go up for sale.

TBH, if we scraped 17th every season with the minimum amount of outlay it would make great commercial sense !!! LOL

Don't worry, everything will be fine once the Head of International Commercial Development (Asia) and Head of International Sports Business Development (Asia) that we're currently advertising for are employed.

All those tie ins with Indonesian tyre companies and extra shirt sales in Vietnam will take us to the next level. Exciting times

I have to say that i agree with many of you. Kat took the 1st offer that came along. The B-llsh-t about 'getting the right owner' is looking just like that 'b-llsh-t'. I have heard grumbles about it for a while from fans but those grumbles are getting louder and i 'fear' that this will turn into a massive issue come the end of the season. Nick over on the UI is always 'sticking up' for the owners asking 'what have they done wrong?'. I think the fact that they haven't invested in new signings that we desperately needed in January is more than wrong, it's blatantly incompetent. It's obvious to me that Gao won't put his hand in his pocket. If he won't help us out in the situation we are in then he never will. This club could be on the verge of a major crisis because if we drop into the Championship our slide won't stop there. Everything that Markus did for us will be undone by his daughter selling out to a chinaman who is only here to suck up the Premier League cash.

Gao’s plans for Southampton FC are to use the club as a way into getting property developments in the city. The people (board) who work for the club are here in Southampton and can meet with the council chiefs, council chiefs want to work with the football club and politically the club’s status in the city helps open doors. The money made will go back to China and not to develop the football club.

Kat could have sold to other investors who would genuinely have improved us but she wanted the money.

Owning a football club is a mere vehicle for bigger more lucrative activity.

If the folk running the Club had any financial nous, they would have seen an opportunity to both:-
1) avoid relegation and the financial meltdown in most of Gao's £200m investment/loan and
2) the opportunity to have lifted the team by a further £10m to £15m in the Merit (league position) revenues.

It just needed them to buy a solid reliable inform striker, of which £15m would have been a bargain for Che.

I certainly don't hate Gao: in fact, I feel a bit sorry for him. Kat has taken him for every penny she could get and he is in way over his head. Over the last few months he has had to sell off most of his shares in Lander Sports cheaply in an attempt to raise enough cash to pay back the loan he took out to pay her. Kat has been utterly ruthless in her pursuit of cash and has made more money out of this football club - so far around quarter of a billion pounds - than just about any other owner in the history of football. Charging the club she owned interest for loans was plain mean and just another way she found of siphoning money out of it.

There is nothing wrong with having a wealthy Chinese owner as Wolves have found out. The problem is we don't have one:

I certainly don't hate Gao: in fact, I feel a bit sorry for him. Kat has taken him for every penny she could get and he is in way over his head. Over the last few months he has had to sell off most of his shares in Lander Sports cheaply in an attempt to raise enough cash to pay back the loan he took out to pay her. Kat has been utterly ruthless in her pursuit of cash and has made more money out of this football club - so far around quarter of a billion pounds - than just about any other owner in the history of football. Charging the club she owned interest for loans was plain mean and just another way she found of siphoning money out of it.

There is nothing wrong with having a wealthy Chinese owner as Wolves have found out. The problem is we don't have one:

On par, but getting worse. Seemingly because he has no interest in us, none at all. If he was a passionate owner as our Ralph claims him to be...then he'd have bothered to learn English and given us some concrete proposals on his plans going forward. At the end of the day his actions speak louder than words, and all his actions have been is to sell and get rid, whilst not investing a penny.

This entire charade seems to have been simply an ego boost for himself and his franchises in China, a quick and easy sale for Kat as she needed money urgently, whilst helping him jump on the football bandwagon they’re trying to promote over there. None of this is being done in the interests of us guys who spend our money to line his pockets.

This entire takeover screamed alarm bells from the moment he initially failed any test.

To be fair Lowe had to work under tighter constraints than the current clowns, he had the mortgage and shareholders to worry about. Obviously our current ownership situation is miles better than under Lowe but in terms of actuall descisions made by the chief exec then I’m not sure current lot are any better.

We have £100mill odd of players loaned out to clubs across Europe and are starting with Shane Long up front. We are looking likely to be playing Championship football next year whilst loaning our right back to Inter Milan - the club is a mess.

Out of interest, is there anyone who actually wants him here? Is there any counter argument?

He’s doing a great job. On the football side We cut salary expenditure significantly during January and made a profit in the transfer window from player sales.

We have a marketing department on board with every cause there is, note the recent acclaim we got for flying the trannie flag on our twitter feed supporting transgender rights.

What With the fans forums to keep it touch with what’s going on, the new gas works bar, pre match light display and the wide arrange of foodstuff available in the kiosks its arguable that that the match day experience has never been better.

Gao’s plans for Southampton FC are to use the club as a way into getting property developments in the city. The people (board) who work for the club are here in Southampton and can meet with the council chiefs, council chiefs want to work with the football club and politically the club’s status in the city helps open doors. The money made will go back to China and not to develop the football club.

Kat could have sold to other investors who would genuinely have improved us but she wanted the money.

Owning a football club is a mere vehicle for bigger more lucrative activity.

Eh, I don't buy this reasoning at all. Lander aren't a general real-estate development company, and Gao doesn't seem to have any significant business interest outside Lander and his ownership of Saints (and Lander's value has collapsed over the past few years, making a simultaneous international expansion AND a broadening in their commercial focus quite a stretch - not to mention Gao has sold off the majority of his Lander holdings in the last few months anyway).

I think it far more likely that buying the club was a way to transfer wealth to a more liberal regulatory environment. Acquire the club with money borrowed from outside PRC, and either sell it in a few years for a profit or use the club's own ever-increasing revenues to pay off the debt, and one way or another you have moved over £200m out from under the nose of the Chinese government.

Gao’s plans for Southampton FC are to use the club as a way into getting property developments in the city. The people (board) who work for the club are here in Southampton and can meet with the council chiefs, council chiefs want to work with the football club and politically the club’s status in the city helps open doors. The money made will go back to China and not to develop the football club.

Kat could have sold to other investors who would genuinely have improved us but she wanted the money.

Owning a football club is a mere vehicle for bigger more lucrative activity.

Much as i dislike Gao this is crap there are much better property investments throughout the world than in Southampton And his money would be much better spent profit wise elsewhere. Also the Southampton council would bite the hand off a good investor in the city so no need to buy a football club for that. Do you really think he can recover the cost of the club that he paid Kat as profit on property deals in Southampton? No chance!

Eh, I don't buy this reasoning at all. Lander aren't a general real-estate development company, and Gao doesn't seem to have any significant business interest outside Lander and his ownership of Saints (and Lander's value has collapsed over the past few years, making a simultaneous international expansion AND a broadening in their commercial focus quite a stretch - not to mention Gao has sold off the majority of his Lander holdings in the last few months anyway).

I think it far more likely that buying the club was a way to transfer wealth to a more liberal regulatory environment. Acquire the club with money borrowed from outside PRC, and either sell it in a few years for a profit or use the club's own ever-increasing revenues to pay off the debt, and one way or another you have moved over £200m out from under the nose of the Chinese government.

Gao’s plans for Southampton FC are to use the club as a way into getting property developments in the city. The people (board) who work for the club are here in Southampton and can meet with the council chiefs, council chiefs want to work with the football club and politically the club’s status in the city helps open doors. The money made will go back to China and not to develop the football club.

Kat could have sold to other investors who would genuinely have improved us but she wanted the money.

Owning a football club is a mere vehicle for bigger more lucrative activity.